PARENTS have been warned to be wary of how their children use the internet as a predatory abuser faces jail.

Wendy Shepherd, children’s service manager at Barnado’s, said mums and dads need to consider the type of people who lurk on the worldwide web.

“It’s important parents really understand how these men can very cleverly groom their children and unfortunately, children do take risks and meet people off-line,” she added.

“Parents need to be competent in setting privacy settings online and ensuring young people are aware there are people out there who can be very dangerous.”

The warning comes after the Gazette reported how Gavin Ventner, 27, was facing a lengthy spell behind bars for engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old Stockton girl he groomed online.

He then travelled from Cheshire to meet her - leading to a period his victim describes as “the worst time of her life”.

Speaking anonymously in the hope her story “will help other girls be safe,” Debbie - whose name has been changed for legal reasons - said: “I know now I was a victim and he didn’t love me.

“It makes me feel so stupid for being taken in - but the police said people like him are conmen.”

Debbie’s story of how she met Ventner online has chilling echoes of the early stages of the case against Peter Chapman, which resulted in a national outcry against youngsters using certain social networking sites.

Murderer Chapman, 34, who is now serving a life sentence at HMP Frankland in County Durham, raped and suffocated 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall after befriending her on Facebook and arranging to meet her.

The teenager’s mum Andrea Hall thought Ashleigh, from Darlington, was staying with a friend when she went out to meet Teesside-raised Chapman, who she believed was a 16-year-old boy.

Ashleigh’s horrific fate was only discovered when Andrea repeatedly called her on her mobile - until it was eventually answered by a police officer.

Her body was later discovered in a field on the outskirts of Sedgefield and Andrea launched emotional appeals for more protection of youngsters online.

In another case in August last year, James Edward Dunn, then 28, of Elmhurst Gardens, Hemlington, started a seven-year jail sentence for raping a 16-year-old he met online.